Excel to Notion migration
Nobody decides to run a company on a spreadsheet. It just happens, one tab at a time, until the file takes ten minutes to open and only one person understands the formulas.
Should you even migrate?
Keep Excel for what Excel is for: modeling, analysis, one-off number work. Nothing we build replaces that, and we'd be suspicious of anyone who says otherwise.
Migrate the spreadsheets that stopped being spreadsheets: the "master file" everyone edits, the tracker with 40 columns and color-coding as a permissions system, the workbook that is actually your CRM, your project tracker, and your reporting layer at once. If a file has an owner, a change-request process, or a name in ALL CAPS, it's a system pretending to be a spreadsheet.
What a straight CSV import won't give you
Notion swallows CSVs happily. What you get is a flat table, which is what you already had, minus the formulas. The migration work is everything the spreadsheet was faking:
Relations instead of VLOOKUPs
Views instead of filtered copies
Permissions instead of "please don't touch column F"
One source of truth instead of _FINAL_v7 (2).xlsx
What maps to what
| Excel / Sheets | Notion | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Workbook | Teamspace or database set | One workbook usually hides 3-4 real entities |
| Tab | Database | Tabs that are filtered copies become views, not databases |
| VLOOKUP / INDEX-MATCH | Relation + rollup | This is the structural upgrade |
| Color coding | Status/select properties | Meaning becomes data, not decoration |
| Shared drive of copies | One database, many views | The v7-final problem, solved structurally |
| Pivot table | Grouped views + formulas / charts | Heavy analysis stays in Excel, on purpose |
How we run it
- 01
Audit
Inventory of the files that are actually systems. Usually 5-10 candidates; usually 3 matter.
- 02
Data modeling
Entities, relations, and what to leave behind. The delete pile is a deliverable.
- 03
Migration
Cleaned, deduplicated, related. Not a CSV dump.
- 04
Adoption
The person who owned the spreadsheet becomes the person who owns the system. That transition is the whole game.
Proof
From Excel to Notion: A New Collaborative Space for IDB
Pricing
The final number depends on volume: how many files are really systems, how much history is worth keeping, how dirty the data is. If you want a second opinion before deciding anything, let's have a discovery call. Pricing is public: same numbers you'll find on our services page.
Frequently asked questions
Can Notion really replace Excel?
No, and that's not the goal. Notion replaces the spreadsheets that were pretending to be databases, trackers, and CRMs.
How do you migrate formulas?
Structural formulas (lookups, references) become relations and rollups. Calculation formulas become Notion formulas where they belong, or stay in Excel where they belong. We decide per formula, with you.
What about the historical data in old tabs?
Migrated if it's queried, archived if it's not. We don't pay the complexity cost of ten years of history nobody opens. But nothing is deleted without a signed-off archive.
Our file has 10,000 rows. Is that a problem?
Notion handles it; your views need designing for it. Large datasets are a design question, not a blocker. It's one of the first things we check in the audit.
Google Sheets too, or only Excel?
Both. The pathology is identical; only the file extension changes.
How much does the migration cost?
From €2.5k, scaling with the volume and state of your data. Fixed number after the audit, not an hourly surprise.